Peach crisp

A friend of ours from Colombia had never tried crisp or cobbler before, and when Jessica tried to explain what it was, she described it as "very much like pie, but with the crust just on top." He loved the end result, but could not remember the proper name for the dish, and so has forever referred to it as "upside down pie."

With only a couple of weeks left in peach season, we thought we'd share our recipe for peach crisp! We started with the excellent recipe for apple crisp written on One Frugal Foodie, and modified it for peaches. We are also big fans of real butter, but imagine that you can easily make this recipe vegan again if you prefer a margarine butter substitute.

This recipe is easy to tweak to suit your individual taste- add a bunch of blueberries, or some shredded coconut on top for great texture and flavor. If you have some, scrape the seeds from about half of a vanilla bean onto the peaches before you add the topping. Or, top each warm serving with some good vanilla bean ice cream when you serve it.

Finally, be sure to use real maple syrup on top. It gives an incredible crunchy texture that is impossible to create otherwise and is well worth it!

Enjoy!

Peach Crisp

4 medium-large freestone peaches

1/2 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp ground cardamom

2 tbsp maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Slice the peaches into thin wedges, leaving the skin on. (The skins will confer a lot of extra flavor to the dish, and they will soften while baking.) Add them to an 8" x 8" baking dish. Toss with vanilla seeds, if using, or add a dash of vanilla extract.

3. Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, and cardamom in a large bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks crumbly, and the pieces of butter are about the size of peppercorns. Add the topping in an even layer on top of the peaches.

4. Drizzle the topping with the maple syrup.

5. Bake the crisp for about 30 minutes, until the fruit is soft and sizzling, and the topping is a golden brown.

6. Enjoy!